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Topic: first styling new big black pine (Read 8898 times)

After a long wait of two years after obtaining this big japanese black pine I finally got to do a first styling of it, with my teacher Ron.It will still take several years to devellop secundairy and tertiary branching but a start has finally been made.

Hope you like it and please share your comments.

The height of the tree above the pot is 80 cm (that would be 32 in?).Plans for the near future: slippotting it into a slightly larger container next spring and concentrate on backbudding and growth of secundairy and tertairy branches. Several branches also need thickening. In three years it should be ready for its first bonsaipot.

The lowest branch on the left is too low. If you are keeping it to thicken the trunk, it won't do positioned as a branch. If you want it to be a sacrifice to thicken the trunk, wire it up vertical, cut off most of its branches, and let the terminal tip grow unchecked. It won't do much until it is taller than the rest of the tree, then it should take off and build trunk.

There are some heavy branches in the top of the tree. You might consider cutting these off and using lighter ones. There's also some branches coming off the inside of curves on the trunk. Those may need to be removed.

About slip potting... Your photos don't show the depth of the current container. If it's fairly deep, consider sawing it off in half, then using a pond basket as your next training pot.

Thanks for your positive comments!You forgot to mention the bar branches and the spoke branches.

I did not want to repot next year at all, but because the container was cut down I have trouble lifting the tree. So a new container, slightly bigger, with minimal disturbance of the roots doesn't seem a bad idea.Next spring absolutely no rootwork will be done on this tree.

I learnt (the hard way) to do work only once on roots or on branches per vegetative (is that English? ) period. So now it must recover from its first styling an no sooner then spring 2016 I will do serious root work. The soil is kind of okay. Stays wet a little longer then I would like, but it's drains wel.As you mentioned: more branches will have to go in the near future. I want thick branches with big pads of foliage, and much negative space.

Reading your comments again I realise that your remarks are not only correct, but also allways positive.I wanted a moyogi with a big trunk. Its obvious that this pine isn't going to be that.I decided to style it as a slant. Leaning it to the left. Need to lose a lot of branches lower on the trunk and the heavy branches in the top of the tree.I'm a little worried about its vigour at the moment, due to a very cold spring. That's why I didn't do any pruning this spring. I will prune next fall to achieve backbudding. And for now I'll let it grow.About reducing a canopy of a pine or conifers in general. The advise is allways to reduces a canopy in stages. No one ever tells how much time there should be between those stages. Is that a whole year, a couple of months or a couple of weeks.

here is an update on my big black pine.last april I took it to a workshop with Taiga Urushibata. Taiga encouraged me to cut of all the branches that I thought were unnecessary. Keeping an eye on what I was pruning away, he kept saying ' be brave, be brave...'Later I corrected the first branche that was coming of the trunk at an awkward angle. I used a clamp and guy wires to bring the branche down. (I saw this in a post from Al Keppler about his Muranaka pine). Next year I'll take it further, by cutting a wedge in the underside of the branche.Now need a lot of backbudding and growth. I begin to be happy with this tree.

what is there to explain? Its just a tool used in furniture making.All Keppler explains it very well in his posts about his Muranaka pine. Its about the same clamp, a little more oldfashioned tough. I used it t change the angle that the first branche came of the trunk. I lowered it as far as I dared and secured with a guy wire. I want it further down, but I need to cut a small wedge from he underside to bend iteven more.